The Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas is seeing plenty of emphasis on all things wireless. Qualcomm got in on the wireless announcement action by offering a taste of the first products that will use its latest generation Snapdragon processors. Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 and 600 processors target what the company calls "premium" and computing devices.

Steve Mollenkopf, president and chief operating officer of Qualcomm, pointed out that Qualcomm has racked up more than 50 design wins already with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 and 800 processors. That's an impressive feat considering the competitive landscape.

Tri-Band Wi-Fi

Meanwhile, Qualcomm Atheros and Wilocity, a 60GHz multi-gigabit wireless chipsets developer, launched the industry's first tri-band reference design that combines 802.11ac and 802.11ad wireless capabilities on a single module.

Based on Qualcomm VIVE 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Wilocity 802.11ad WiGig wireless technologies, the reference design delivers tri-band Wi-Fi. That allows consumers to connect to 60GHz-enabled devices, docks, displays and storage at multi-gigabit speeds, while maintaining enterprise-wide or whole home coverage with 2.4GHz/5GHz Wi-Fi.

"This latest solution opens the door for consumer electronics manufacturers to integrate the technology on platforms ranging from HDTVs and gaming consoles to notebooks," said Vivek Gupta, vice president of computing, Qualcomm Atheros.

Betting on Big Bird

Qualcomm also announced updates to its Vuforia software platform to support real-time text recognition using smartphone and tablet cameras. When released in the spring, Vuforia's text recognition capability promises to allow developers to build a new class of educational experiences that incorporate interactivity with real world objects. Developers can also use Vuforia's text recognition to enable a new form of data entry in addition to on-screen keyboards and speech-to-text.

During the keynote, Sesame Street's Big Bird took the stage. Qualcomm unveiled the Big Bird's Words app, the first app built using the Vuforia text recognition feature. In the Big Bird's Words app, children are guided to search for and find new words in their environment, making vocabulary building a fun and interactive experience. familiar contexts.

The Gobi MDM9215 chipset will be implemented by Audi in the automotive module. The solution will power Audi connect with 4G LTE speeds and is designed to enable enhancements to real-time navigation, weather and travel information while providing ultra-fast Wi-Fi hotspot access for up to eight devices in the car.

"We hope to introduce to automobiles the same 4G LTE connectivity that Qualcomm brought to today's leading smartphones and mobile computing devices," said Kanwalinder Singh, senior vice president of business development, Qualcomm Technologies.